Arcontech announces .net API extensions

01/06/2005

Reinforcing its commitment to enterprise level support in its award-winning CityVision StarNet market data platform, Arcontech has formally released the .net version of the application-programming interface for its global networking solution.

The .net API enables clients and third party developers to access the full functionality of CityVision from any of the Microsoft .net programming languages. This greatly reduces the time and costs to integrate with other systems and to produce value-added functions, utilising the full sophistication of the StarNet platform.

Andrew Miller, Managing Director of Arcontech said: “The API gives access to the full range of enterprise features in the platform. We develop all our applications using the API, so we know it works well. Many other firms have used the API to automate their live price publication, often taking only a few days.”

Arcontech announced the CityVision Page Contributor, its first product built using the .net API, earlier this year. Since then the API has been used by Arcontech clients and third party developers to integrate live pricing and vendor contribution systems.

API developers can write applications to receive real-time data from any StarNet data source to which they have access. This can include many data feeds, such as Reuters and Comstock, plus any source on a Reuter Triarch or RMDS platform. Applications can also contribute data in real-time, with the StarNet automatically listening for heartbeats and alerting data consumers by setting data stale if connections are lost or source applications fail. Contributed data can be sent straight to vendors such as Reuters and Bloomberg or re-published via StarNet or onto RMDS.

Apart from real-time market data, the API also gives access to detailed real-time status information from CityVision Server components or published by client applications. Access is subject to the authentication and entitlements systems that governs all CityVision applications.

The first published CityVision API was launched ten years ago as an ActiveX control, specifically for early VB developers. Since then versions for COM and Java have been developed and enhanced to keep pace with new platform features. Miller again: “It’s vital for our clients that we keep pace with technology trends and we think the .net platform is important strategically. This release packages years of expert development into an easy to use interface, so developers can concentrate on functionality, not infrastructure”.